State Senate panel to vote on death-penalty bill

LITTLE ROCK  An Arkansas Senate committee is considering legislation to rewrite the state’s lethal injection law after it was thrown out by the state Supreme Court last year.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Wednesday on a bill that would spell out how the Arkansas Department of Correction is to carry out executions.

The state Supreme Court ruled last year that the Legislature had violated the state Constitution in leaving it up to the Department of Correction to determine which chemicals to use to execute an inmate.

Republican Sen. Bart Hester of Cave Springs is sponsoring the bill, and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel is expected to speak in favor of the measure.